On Halloween, Rohan Cherukuri (12) and his friends emerged from the bathroom, donned in clown suits complete with red noses, makeup and juggling balls.  His friend group, self-monickered the “Clowns,” attracted lots of attention from onlookers.

Rishi Dange (12), who has known Rohan since they went to Stratford Sunnyvale for preschool together, describes how they all came up with the idea.

“Freshman year, we decided that we were all going to dress up all together as clowns as seniors.  Senior year, we got together the week before we figured it out.  That morning, we all came together and met up in the upstairs Dobbins bathroom and came out as clowns,” he said.

But, if freshman Rohan were to somehow observe that day, he would be incredibly surprised at the prospect of such an idea. 

His math teacher of two years Bradley Stoll commented on how Rohan has started to diverge more from his introverted tendencies from when he was an underclassman.

“There was a big change in him.  He was a lot more serious than he is now, sitting with Rohan [Sonecha] (12) and Martin [Bourdev] (12). He’s a lot more lighthearted now, and it looks like he’s having a lot more fun.  I would give time for homework, and he would often do other things,” Stoll said, laughing.

Rohan also enjoys a variety of different activities.  Remarkably, he has participated in a different exercise to obtain all of his PE credits.  By senior year, he still had one credit to go and decided to join cross country and the dance show to fulfill the requirement.  Although they were difficult, cross country especially so, he feels like the commitment and the discipline has bettered him physically and mentally.

“I feel like the practices helped me understand what a sports team was like because I wasn’t on a sports team in high school … It was important to force my body to go there two hours a day and run for the whole time,” he said.  “So that was great – I definitely got faster, definitely got more in shape – it was a good experience, and I’m glad I did it.”

His happy-go-lucky attitude is in stark contrast with his view of math, another interest of his.  Although he continues to pursue math because it interests him, he admits that he dislikes the process of solving the problem.  Rather, he enjoys the satisfaction of solving the problem.

“I really like the fact when it all comes together.  I honestly don’t enjoy the process of messing around with a problem and struggling with it.  No one likes being wrong, no one likes having a hard time,” he said.  “I’m not going to pretend to like the process of doing a math problem.  For me, the answer is where everything is.  If you can vindicate all the work that you’ve done, it’s a great feeling because all the struggles you’ve gone through solving the problem is over by coming up with a number.”

Whether he’s solving math problems or trying another method to accumulate PE credit, Rohan likes to live life one step at a time and let it all come together in the end.

“I’m going to remember all the different things I did and all the different memories I had and how each of these things blend together to make my experience. I’m not going to remember how I do math or how I do quiz bowl or how I picked up cross country,” he said.  “I’m not going to remember any of these storylines independently; they’re all going to merge together to form what I’m interested in.”

Ultimately, Rohan’s passion derives from his goal to enjoy and have fun in everything he does.

“Whenever I do something, I’m not necessarily motivated by a passion for any one thing but I’m motivated for having fun with whatever I’m doing. That’s my primary goal to do whatever I want. The number one goal with everything I do is to enjoy it,” Rohan said.